The Ring The Spaniard Gave Her - Lynne Graham Page 0,45
future and I’m going to look into studying towards that goal. I’ll need to get applications in now if I want to get onto a course.’
‘One more day, querida,’ Ruy murmured drily. ‘Don’t make it a big deal. I didn’t ask for this party either.’
Suzy sucked in a sustaining breath, wanting to be fair and yet resenting him for putting pressure on her. ‘I’ll agree because it would be unreasonable to say no in the circumstances, but no is really what you deserve...’ She waved a meaningful hand at the racks of clothing and the antique box of jewellery. ‘You constantly chip away at what I want to try and turn it into what you want instead. I don’t like that.’
The faintest colour edged Ruy’s sculpted cheekbones. ‘I enjoy smoothing out problems for you, solving them,’ he argued as he moved forward. ‘You’re letting me paint you. You’re faking being my betrothed for my benefit. I owe you and I like to pay my debts.’
‘Some things in life are free, Ruy,’ Suzy declared, her pulses pounding at the smouldering glitter in his gaze. ‘You don’t owe me anything and I don’t owe you anything either. Let’s keep this simple.’
‘You want me to return the clothes?’ he prompted tautly.
‘Not until I’ve picked out something suitable for a fancy engagement party,’ Suzy responded with a rueful roll of her bright eyes. ‘And now Cecile knows about our pretend engagement as well.’
‘Cecile knows the truth...that you’re doing me a favour,’ Ruy contradicted.
‘Like I’m about to complain about a week in a palace abroad where I’m being waited on hand and foot!’ Suzy quipped, flashing him a look of amusement, needing to come across as light-hearted and fully aware that nothing between them was real or lasting. ‘And the sex isn’t bad either.’
‘Cheeky,’ Ruy remarked with a sizzling smile, reaching for her and discovering that at the very last minute she wasn’t there any more.
‘Lunch,’ she reminded him from the bedroom door. ‘I’m starving!’
She would keep it light and chirpy right up until the moment she departed. She wasn’t the clingy, needy type and, worse, he would be repelled by any hint of clinginess after suffering the attentions of a stalker in the past. No, there would be no behaviour of that nature on her part. She would laugh and she would smile, and she would stay normal and buoyant right to the bitter end.
CHAPTER NINE
‘YOU LOOK FANTASTIC,’ Ruy murmured as Suzy emerged from the dressing room, a flirty net fascinator anchored in her vibrant curls. She was an amazingly sexy vision. No man in the world would wonder why he was with such a beauty. That emerald-green shade accentuated her translucent skin and vibrant curls.
Her elegant gown, with its strategic panelled splits, revealed an occasional discreet flash of long shapely calf and tiny feet shod in high-heeled shoes that were a curious mix of bondage boot and sandal, with narrow straps that bared her toes while accentuating the delicacy of her ankles. ‘I notice that you’re not wearing any jewellery.’
‘I’m wearing the engagement ring, but I decided it was best not to borrow anything from that chest,’ Suzy told him gently. ‘I’m not a member of the family and it would be tasteless of me to be seen flaunting any of it before we were married. Your brother’s bride would have more excuse than I would have.’
‘The collection was offered to her and refused,’ Ruy sliced in coolly. ‘Of course, Rigo is marrying an heiress and the bride probably has her own inherited gems to flaunt.’
Suzy flushed a little. ‘I wasn’t being rude. I just don’t think it would be appropriate for me to be showing it off in my current role. You’ve told me nothing about the woman your brother is marrying. Tell me more,’ she urged, keen to leave the topic of the jewellery she had rejected behind.
‘Her name is Mercedes Hernandez Ortega. She’s the only child of a prominent industrialist and well known for her charity work. I’ve never met her because she’s more in your age group than mine. As my father would have said, however, in a worldly sense, Rigo has done very well for himself this time.’
‘This time?’ she questioned as they walked downstairs.
‘This is Rigo’s second marriage,’ Ruy admitted rather stiffly.
‘He’s divorced?’
‘Widowed,’ Ruy corrected. ‘His first marriage wasn’t a happy one, though.’
‘Well, then, it’s lovely that he’s met someone else and that he wasn’t soured by his first experience,’ Suzy declared in that upbeat way of